Dilemma in the middle of the night
Yossi,
a soldier, was allowed to come home for a night of Chanukah. After taking two
trains and three buses from his army base, he managed to get home at one in the
morning.
Unfortunately, he realized that he didn’t have any oil to light his
menorah (and the stores were all closed, of course). Yossi glanced towards his
neighbor, Reuven’s wall and saw his neighbor’s menorah was still burning. He
considered taking some oil taking from Reuven which would enable him to fulfill
his mitzvah.
Answer:
Rav
Neventzal answered that Yossi may not take his neighbor’s oil it
is Assur to take. Taking it would be stealing (Lo Tignov).
Rav
Zilbershtein answered that Yossi may use Reuven’s
oil for this reason- If Reuven were to call his Rav and ask if he should remove
some of his oil to share with his neighbor (Yossi), the Rav would certainly
tell him that he should donate the oil because Yossi’s fulfilling the mitzvah
of lighting his menorah for Chanukah is more important than Reuven’s “hiddur”
(glorifying) of having a long -burning menorah. (see Mishnah Berurah). Therefore,
we can assume that Reuven would want to do what his Rav would tell him to do,
and Yossi may take some oil from Reuven. However, Yossi may only take enough
oil for one candle (since that is enough to fulfill the mitzvah).
Angry husband
Rivka, a baalas teshuva, was married to a very spiteful and angry man. One of the many examples of this was that whenever Rivka lit her Shabbos or Chanukah candles, her husband would purposely blow them out shortly thereafter. Rivka wasn’t sure if she is allowed to make a bracha in this situation and felt that she should ask a Rav.
Should Rivka make a bracha while lighting her candles?
Should Rivka make a bracha while lighting her candles?
Answer:
Rav
Zilbershtein advised her that she should light candles WITH a bracha. His
reasoning is that even though the halacha says that if if someone lights
candles when there are strong winds that will likely extinguish the candles one
may not say a bracha, However,in this case ,Rivka should say the bracha because
it is not an absolute certainty that the husband will blow out the candles
.
Bonus Riddle:
How
is it possible for one to light a menorah and it is not deemed kosher and is
not “yotzei” the mitzvah, yet 20 minutes later it is without him doing anything???
Answer:
If
the candles are over 20 “amot” (approximately 10 meters) high it isn’t kosher.
However, if it is left to burn down for a few minutes and reaches to the height
of UNDER 20 amot it then becomes kosher! (see Divrei Yatziv אורח חיים רפד).
*****
